9 Tails of Seduction
by midnightjen
Summary: Just another day in Portland, so of course, people are being set on fire and others are being seduced. Takes place after 'Til it's Gone.
**a/n:** Three things: 1 - thanks so much for the wonderful reviews and continued support for this series! 2 - This one got away from me, it started out as a quick 5000 word chance for Adalind to have some fun on a wesen case and ended up twice the size and more of a glimpse of how normal such a a thing could be and 3 - i've hit that point in a season where i'm refusing to watch anymore until i know my ship is going to be okay, so i'm 2 episodes behind and i'm okay with that. As always, i'd love to hear your thoughts!

 **9 Tails of Seduction**

His name was Danny; technically he was a very thoughtful and practical "gift" from Eve. Right in that moment, his (as always) prompt arrival was ruining any chance she had of getting in some very rushed morning sex before Nick had to go to work and she had to spend the day stuck at home with Danny the contractor.

Seriously, Adalind had made some excellent progress undoing all of the work Nick had done to get dressed for work and he was quite eagerly divesting her of her bra when the security alarm went off absolutely ruining the mood. Nick flopped back onto the bed and growled his annoyance. An honest to God growl.

Straddling his hips, Adalind could feel how eager he'd been to squeeze in that morning sex even if he'd made a point of protesting how late it would make him.

'If we ignore him, do you think he'll go away?' Adalind asked in a hopeful whisper.

Nick scrubbed his hands over his face and sat up. The movement caused a nice bit of friction between them and she whimpered. Judging by the way Nick's breath caught and he had to take a moment before he could speak she could tell he was still very much feeling it. 'We don't want him to go away,' he pointed out, voice husky with desire. 'The sooner he finishes next door the sooner we never have to see him again.'

He had a point and so instead of ignoring the alarm (and the way Nick's phone trilled alerting them to the text Danny had just sent) she placed one last (lingering) kiss on Nick's lips and stood to get dressed. It wasn't that they didn't like Danny, finding him really had been a gift, but that didn't mean they weren't both ready to have the work next door finished so that he didn't have to come over everyday, risking their location.

Just because Eve had assured them he was exactly what they needed to turn the space next door into a liveable (functioning) extension of their own loft, didn't mean they were comfortable letting a complete stranger into their home. It was why, despite the fact that the 65 year old ex-army "contractor extraordinaire" (Rosalee's words) had offered, they were only getting him to put in the walls, electricity and plumbing. The painting, floors and everything else, they were going to do themselves.

Well, she was going to make Nick do most of it, she'd told him pointedly that she'd take care of the garden on the roof, the painting and the decorating if he did the heavy lifting.

Fully dressed, she emerged from their bedroom to the sound of the elevator returning and the grate sliding up. 'Morning Adalind,' Danny greeted cheerfully, and despite her annoyance at being interrupted, she smiled back.

It was just a little bit hard to hold a grudge against someone who'd been working so hard, over the last two weeks (on his own), to convert the big open space next door into three separate rooms and a functioning bathroom just so that she and Nick didn't have to try and find somewhere else that could afford them the same level of security.

Adalind had never gotten the full story about how Eve knew Danny (she wasn't sure she wanted to), Nick had simply come home one day from work with his number and the news that the reason Black Claw had never followed either of them home was because they couldn't. The discovery that Eve had put some sort of spell or something on their home that prevented anyone they didn't tell from remembering where they lived was news to both of them.

'Apparently, she approves of my choice of location,' Nick had said, sounding wary. Adalind could definitely agree with his concerns. Why was Eve so determined to help them? Why was she so determined to give them a safe place to raise their children?

Nick was worried she, like everyone else, wanted to use Diana but Adalind wasn't so sure. She may not have known Henrietta very well, and she definitely knew Eve even less, but she got the feeling that whatever had happened to Diana after Meisner threw the King out of the helicopter, Eve didn't approve.

That didn't tell them anything about her reasons for helping them find a contractor who could be trusted to do the work and not ask questions.

Danny wasn't one for small talk when there was work to be done so after greeting Adalind, he simply went next door and got to work. Nick took one final gulp of coffee, kissed her goodbye and fled. She hated being left alone in the loft all day, but somehow, when she'd been explaining her loneliness to Nick, she hadn't envisioned the solution being a six-foot tall, greying soldier with a wife, four kids and seven grandchildren.

Every time she went across to offer him coffee or something to eat she learnt something new about his family. She appreciated that he never asked about hers beyond the surface questions about Kelly and his age and how she'd met Nick. It wasn't like she could tell him anything; one of the things that made Danny a good fit for their renovations was that he had absolutely no ties to the wesen community.

She felt like everything she told him was just a lie while he was sharing huge chunks of his life. Adalind had a suspicion he thought they were hiding from people Nick arrested and she supposed that was close enough to the truth that it wasn't even really a lie.

Around lunch, she wandered into the extension to see if Danny was up for some food and a break and had to admit, he'd done some pretty good work. He'd divided the open space so that when you walked through the archway he'd created from Nick's mess of a hole in the wall, you stepped into a small living area. Two of the three bedrooms (two bedrooms and an office?) ran along one side and the third straight ahead at the end. The bathroom was in the corner and they'd chosen not to connect it with doors to either bedroom because it was the only room in the new space without a window.

It would make for a good place to hide in the event the loft was breached and they couldn't reach the creepy tunnel. The three bedrooms each had one window and they all had the same heavy metal shutters she and Nick had in their room. They were a lot safer than ordinary curtains and so they'd turned down Danny's offer to remove them.

The second loft actually looked like a proper home and she could already picture how she would paint and decorate Kelly's room for when he was ready to have his own space. For now, she'd prefer to keep him with them, just until he was a bit older and things were a bit more settled. Or at least until he started sleeping properly through the night.

'Should be done in a couple of days,' he told her over sandwiches. They talked a little more about her plans and she asked for some advice on how to make the garden on the roof and then he went back to work and she went to play with Kelly.

That was how she spent the rest of her Tuesday. She played with Kelly, she tried her hand at making a lasagne that she could just put in the oven when Nick finally got home and she played with Kelly some more.

Wednesday went much the same way, just without the failed attempt at morning sex and instead of lasagne she chopped up some vegetables for a stir-fry and baked some cookies.

About the only thing different about Thursday was that when she stepped into the extension to see if Danny wanted some lunch she found him packing up his tools. Looking around while he worked, she realised he'd finished all that he was going to do and that she and Nick would have to start painting and finishing it off.

'Would you like some lunch before you go?' she asked, as much as she'd found having a strange man in the loft with her awkward once he left she would again be on her own with Kelly.

'I'm meeting my daughter and grandkids for lunch,' Danny apologised.

'Oh.' Unsure what else to say, Adalind chose to compliment Danny's work and thank him (again) for all the work he'd done.

'I like the work,' he told her honestly. 'Keeps me out of trouble and gives me something to do. 'Retirement can get boring.'

'I know what you mean.'

Feeling like she needed to do something, she helped carry a few of the lighter bits and pieces to the elevator and then helped him load up his truck. Awkward as it had been, it had been nice to have company and Adalind hated that she felt so needy that she was disappointed that Danny was having lunch with his family.

She'd just watched him load the last of his tools into his truck when he seemed to hesitate. Finally, making up his mind, he reached into his pocket and withdraw a piece of notepaper folded over several times. He handed it to her with a sheepish expression and she took it and opened it, staring down at the words written on the lined paper in confusion.

'I don't know what happened that has you two hiding out here,' Danny began, looking more uncomfortable than she'd ever seen him in the two and a half weeks he'd been getting under foot. 'But well, I can tell that its lonely for you. I mentioned it to my wife – how I thought you were kind of lonely – and she gave me this list to give you.'

Again Adalind looked down at the list, still not quite understanding what it meant but she was touched all the same that a complete stranger had tried to help. 'What are they?'

'It's a list of groups in Portland for new moms,' Danny told her. 'Both of my girls went to them and my daughter-in-law. Some of them are just support groups, but I think a couple on there are some of those new fangled fitness things.'

The fact that he used the term "new fangled" made her smile and she carefully folded the page in half and tucked it into the pocket of her jacket. 'Thank you, that was really kind of your wife.'

He shrugged awkwardly, reminded her that they were welcome to give him a call if they wanted any more work done on the extension, and climbed into his truck and drove away. Adalind closed the garage door behind him and went back up to the loft. After checking on Kelly, she took the list out of her pocket and looked at it again.

Finally with a shake of her head she folded it up and set it aside. She didn't throw it out though.

By Friday, the tedium was getting to her and she decided that, whether or not Rosalee needed a hand at the shop, she and Kelly were going to go for a visit. Even if her friend was too busy to talk it at least gave them an excuse to get out of the loft. She was incredibly grateful to have her new car so she could actually leave the loft. Those three weeks after her abduction had been a nightmare, constantly relying on Nick or Rosalee to drive her places because she couldn't risk taking a taxi and public transport was simply out of the question. The nearest bust stop was miles away and it would drawn too much attention a woman and baby getting on and off in an industrial area.

Buckling Kelly's car carrier into the backseat, Adalind amused herself remembering how long it had taken them to come to an agreement on Adalind's new car. Nick kept picking at the safety features and interrogating the salesmen about features for children. As touching as that had been, it had made the process a whole lot harder than it had to be. Eventually, she'd gotten him to settle on a brand new Mazda CX-5 (in a deep red) and let him pay the extra to get all of the additional features.

It helped that his attempts to distract himself when she'd been taken had led to finding her inheritance. If she'd never gotten the money that was rightfully hers she wouldn't have complained but it was nice to be able to pay cash for the car and still have plenty of funds left over for things like the renovations of their loft and their children's future.

It didn't hurt that talking about their finances and Nick's constant use of "we" instead of "yours" or "mine" reinforced how serious he was about their relationship. She'd never had joint accounts before, never had bills or assets under both names and while there was a part of her that rankled at the loss of independence she could recognise that part as being driven by fear.

The first credit card Nick had given her had felt like she was taking money that didn't belong to her. The changes in their relationship and the fact that he constantly talked about "we" and "our" meant it didn't feel like that anymore. Even without a job and her own steady income to contribute, somehow, it now felt like things really were theirs and not just his or hers.

'Hey you two,' Rosalee greeted with a smile when they stepped inside. 'How's my favourite little man?'

Seeing he was awake, Rosalee reached into the carrier and lifted Kelly out, giving Adalind a chance to put it and the diaper bag slung over her shoulder in the other room, out of the way of potential customers. Rosalee followed her, bouncing Kelly playfully and making silly noises. It made Adalind smile.

'We were going a little crazy at home and thought we'd come for a visit.'

Rosalee glanced at her and nodded her understanding. 'Why don't I make us some tea?' she suggested. 'I want to hear all about the renovations to the loft.'

Rosalee made to hand Kelly back to Adalind but she waved her friend off. 'You two catch up, I know where everything is.'

As she filled the kettle and put it on to boil, Adalind told Rosalee that Danny was finished putting in the walls and the lights and how it was up to her and Nick to finish making it into a proper home. It was nice talking to Rosalee about such ordinary things but it drove home just how lonely her days mostly were.

'There's so much to do,' she admitted, placing two cups down on the table where she'd once helped Rosalee brew the suppressant. 'I know we're not really in any kind of hurry, we really only got this done so quickly because Nick made such a mess of the wall, but it would be nice to go in there and see Kelly's room all set up.'

Rosalee nodded. 'Are you going to decorate a room for Diana as well?'

Adalind nodded but it was a slow, unsure nod. She wanted to decorate a room for Diana but she also didn't want to get her hopes up. Just because Eve seemed to think she would see Diana again and that their little family would be whole, didn't mean she actually would. She'd gotten her hopes up once before and it hadn't ended well. She wasn't going to count that brief hour or two when she'd stupidly thought Sean might know something.

Rosalee seemed to understand because she smiled and said, 'It's a bit soon to be thinking about when you don't know anything for sure.'

Glad that her friend understood Adalind sighed. 'I know that Nick will find her, I just, I don't know what will happen when he does. There's so much we don't know about Diana and her needs and the things we do know, I don't know what I'm supposed to do with.'

'Are you worried about how powerful she is?'

Adalind considered the question, was she worried about how powerful her daughter was? Diana had always had her powers and she'd seemed to know exactly how to use them to get what she wanted from birth. She was powerful and that could be dangerous but was that what Adalind was worried about? Perhaps it was one of the things she was worried about but mostly, she looked at Kelly, at how normally he was growing and developing, and she worried that Diana would never have those same experiences.

'One day Kelly's going to go to school,' Adalind started, trying to put her worries into words Rosalee could make sense of. 'He'll make friends and he'll play and learn and he'll grow with those friends. Whether he takes after Nick or me, he'll still have that normal childhood experience. Diana can't have that, she'll never be able to go to school, she'll never be able to just play and make friends. How would I explain her to anyone? Its not that she's powerful, we could deal with that, its that she's aging so fast, she'll miss out on all of that.'

'She'll have you and Nick, though,' Rosalee pointed out, tyring to ease some of Adalind's worries. 'She'll have a baby brother she can boss around and she'll have me and Monroe. She won't be alone.'

Adalind shook her head. 'She might not be alone but she'll be lonely. I was,' she admitted. 'I was home schooled; my first real social interactions weren't until college. It was horrible.'

'I didn't know that,' Rosalee murmured and Adalind thought there was a new understanding dawning in Rosalee's eyes, a new understanding of how the isolation she was feeling might be bringing back memories of her own childhood.

Rosalee had been really good about trying to ease some of the loneliness Adalind felt but she could only do so much. Rosalee had a life of her own, friends and a job that Adalind couldn't be a part of. She still appreciated the time Rosalee spent with her, making her feel included. If it weren't for Rosalee, those few months before Nick got his head wrapped around their changing relationship would have been torturous.

'I can't help wondering if it wouldn't be better if Diana didn't have her powers, if she just had the chance to be a normal little girl without all of these people fighting over her.'

Rosalee looked thoughtful. 'Something like the suppressant, you mean?'

It was something she'd been thinking about, not that she'd told Nick it had been on her mind. 'Those months without my powers gave me so much. I don't know that Nick and I would be where we are now if I'd still been a hexenbiest. I guess, I can't help thinking about giving Diana that chance, a chance to be a normal kid, a chance to live without fear that the Royals are going to take her away or that Black Claw will try to use her.'

Rosalee reached out and gave Adalind's hand a squeeze. 'I don't think you're giving Nick enough credit,' she said simply. 'I don't think the suppressant did as much as you think, I think being able to see the kind of life you wanted for Kelly, the kind of life you've never had, changed you just as much. Nick was a part of that, sure, but I don't think supressing the hexenbiest drew him to you. I think the fact that he finally got to know you, did that.

'The woman underneath all the pain and revenge is someone really easy to love.'

Adalind couldn't help smiling at that, she wasn't saying she believed everything Rosalee was saying but it was nice to hear that Rosalee thought she was someone worth knowing, that she could see why Nick might have come to love her.

Adalind's cell phone started ringing and she dug it out of the diaper bag to check the caller ID. 'It's Nick.' She frowned, Nick didn't normally call her from work unless he was going to be out all night or he was up to something she'd consider stupid. 'Hey,' she greeted cautiously, she was hardly looking forward to another night spent waiting up for him.

'Hey,' he sounded strangely distracted and her heart sank. 'Are you at home?'

Surprised by the question, she answered him. 'No, I'm at the shop with Rosalee.'

'Oh.' And, although he still sounded distracted, she thought there was a bit of a smile in his voice. 'Hang on.'

He hung up on her and a moment later the door of the shop opened and he walked in with Hank and Wu trailing behind. 'Hi,' she greeted him with a confused smile.

He grinned, 'Hi.' And, with a level of openness she was still getting used to, bent to give her a kiss before scooping Kelly out of Rosalee's arms and bestowing one on his belly.

Adalind wrinkled her nose. 'Why do you smell like burnt hair?'

All three of the men winced and Adalind looked them over with narrowed eyes. There was a black smudge on Wu's cheek and Hank's jacket was blackened along one sleeve. Nick seemed to be unmarked but he had definitely smelt like he'd singed some hair.

'What do you know about Kitsune?' he asked.

Surprised, Adalind answered him as best she could. 'The Japanese fox trickster?'

'Trickster?' Nick repeated while behind him Hank said, 'Fox? Like a fuchsbau?'

'Kitsune are nothing like fuchsbau,' Rosalee contradicted. 'Adalind's right, they're tricksters.'

'Like harmless practical jokes?' Wu asked hopefully and although Adalind could tell he meant his words she could also tell by his tone that he was perfectly aware how unlikely that was. Since when had anything in their lives been as easy as simple practical jokes?

'No,' Adalind assured him. 'Kitsune are much more likely to trick you into causing your own death.'

'Why are you asking about Kitsune?' Rosalee wondered. 'What does this have to do with you smelling like smoke?'

'Oh,' Adalind realised what the two had to do with each other and immediately she was unimpressed with Nick's burnt hair smell. Still, that didn't explain how he'd come into contact with the Kitsune in the first place. If what she suspected had occurred it shouldn't have involved homicide or larceny. 'How did you come across a Kitsune looking to mate?'

If there was an edge to her voice that suggested Nick better come up with an answer to that pretty darn quickly, she didn't think anyone would hold it against her. No one liked to hear that their boyfriend – future fiancé? Potential husband? – had been on the receiving end of a kistune's seduction plan.

Because she'd asked the question of Nick, and because she'd been looking at him when she'd asked, it took her a moment to realise everyone was looking at her strangely. It wasn't a bad look, it was just surprised, like everyone was surprised she'd known enough about Kitsune to so quickly connect the dots and leap to the mating conclusion. Why was it so hard for them to believe she knew about these things? Why was it okay for Rosalee to know them and not her?

Adalind took a lot of comfort in the fact that Nick didn't look confused or surprised, he actually had that bemused smile he got when he thought she was saying something really smart that most people wouldn't know anything about. Rosalee didn't look surprised that she'd made the connections more that this was what they were dealing with. That likely had a lot to do with the fact that as a wesen she was expected to know these things and so expected they'd think the same of Adalind.

'One of the men she tried to seduce didn't play along and she killed him,' Nick explained. 'She was surprisingly easy to track down but once we found her we weren't exactly sure what to do with her.'

Adalind nodded slowly, considering his words and interpreting them in full. 'If she was still searching for a mate then I take it her tails were still on fire?'

'All nine of them,' Hank replied with a shudder. 'That took us by surprise.'

'Well the Japanese Kitsune can have anywhere between one and nine tales,' Rosalee spoke thoughtfully. 'If this woman had nine then she must be preparing for her first child.'

Adalind nodded her agreement. 'That's going to make for one pissed off Kitsune if she can't find a mate.' She looked suspiciously at Nick. 'Did she try her trickster seduction on you?'

Nick shrugged. 'I wasn't interested.'

Adalind rolled her eyes. 'Good to know, but not actually where I was going with that.'

'Oh.' Nick waited a beat before he asked, 'What was your point?'

'Kitsune don't really have much of a choice when it comes to mating, when its time, its time. Tale number one wants to be passed on and so they try for a suitable mate, seduce, produce and move on.'

Nick's eyebrows shot up but Rosalee grinned. 'Yeah, that sounds pretty much right. Kitsune are vengeful, mischievous and often quite violent in their tricks but they don't tend to kill people themselves. If this woman killed a man it was to protect herself.'

'I wonder why she didn't choose a fuchsbau?' Adalind mused. 'Its not exactly a pleasant forty minutes, what with the fire and risk of burns, but its still sex. Most of the men chosen don't complain.'

'Really?' Wu asked in surprise. 'Nick didn't seem too happy when she was trying to straddle him naked.'

'Yeah well last time I had a naked woman straddling me it was a lot more fun and there were a lot less flames.'

There was a moment of complete silence. She doubted Nick had intended to say that aloud but that didn't stop her from adding, 'Oh I don't know, things got pretty hot.'

Nick gave her a smug look that had Rosalee giggling behind her hand, like she couldn't quite help herself. Both Hank and Wu looked stunned. Adalind didn't know what they were thinking and she didn't much care, the fact that Nick could so easily joke about it in front of his friends was so much more important than what his friends actually thought.

It was a side of Nick she'd only begun to see over the last few weeks and she hoped it stuck around.

'I think what Adalind was trying to say, is that the Kitsune is traditionally quite alluring. Her seduction is supposed to help men overlook the burning tails so that they'll want to mate with her.'

Adalind nodded. 'One of the things you won't find in any book is that the Kitsune can never truly settle down and find love until she has been divested of each of her tails.'

'Wait,' Hank put a hand up looking vaguely horrified. 'Are you telling me that this woman is going to be forced to mate nine times, have nine children before she can actually choose for herself?'

'Yes.' Adalind was quite glad they were starting to see just how horrible being a Kitsune could be. Having the uncontrollable urge to mate and produce offspring until each of her tails were gone wasn't exactly a pleasant way to spend the years between twenty and forty, it put a definite damper on your chances of finding happiness when at any moment biology could screw you over.

'No wonder they're tricksters,' Wu let out a whistle. 'I'd be hell bent on causing some chaos and revenge if that was me.'

'So how do we stop her?'

Adalind looked to Rosalee and was glad to see her friend looking back at her with the same hesitant look she was sure was showing on her own face. The thing about Kitsune in the middle of a mating cycle was that there wasn't a way to stop it. It was just another biological function that had to happen, it wasn't something they had any control over, it wasn't something they could really be held accountable for.

Unless of course, in the midst of this mating imperative, a potential mate was killed. And that just didn't make sense. Everything Adalind knew about Kitsune said that when the urge to mate kicked in their attractiveness to men skyrocketed making it easier for them to use what attracted the man against them. If this Kitsune's potential mate had been able to fight back, had seen the flaming tales and freaked out to the extent she'd been forced to kill him then that suggested something was very wrong with the Kitsune.

'You can't stop her,' Rosalee explained. 'This has to happen. Once one of her tail's is extinguished then you can arrest her for murdering that man.'

Adalind shook her head. 'No,' she contradicted. 'You can't arrest her because in two or three years her tails will ignite and she'll feel the need to mate again. You don't want to be locking that up in a prison full of women.'

'What happens if she doesn't mate?' Nick appeared to be weighing up his options. Was it better to let her go, knowing that she was guilty of killing a man, if it would only cause terrible wesen related issues later?

'Fire,' Rosalee was the one to answer. 'Her tails will consume her.'

'Why do I get the feeling we're not just talking spontaneous combustion?' Wu grumbled.

'It wasn't a cow that burned down half of Chicago,' Adalind replied.

Hank and Wu winced, the truth seemed to roll right off Nick, like he'd just come to expect that kind of thing from his life.

'I just don't understand why this man fought back,' Rosalee pointed out. 'Adalind was right when she said most men don't complain. Why did this one?'

Adalind nodded her own interest in the question. 'What exactly happened when she tried to seduce you?' she asked Nick.

He frowned at her suspiciously. 'Is this a trick question?' He shifted his hold on Kelly, using their son as a shield.

Once again, Adalind rolled her eyes. 'A normal Kitsune would take one look at you when she's ready to mate and be able to pull on your every desire. She should be able to turn you on with all the right moves and signals, she should be next to irresistible.'

'Well she wasn't.'

'But that's the problem,' Rosalee explained. 'If everything was normal, you'd be grovelling for forgiveness right now.'

'For future reference, that would be a lot of grovelling,' Adalind put in helpfully.

It was Nick's turn to roll his eyes. 'Thanks for the warning but I'm good.'

Adalind smiled brightly and then asked him again what had happened when the Kitsune tried to seduce him.

This time Nick took the question seriously. 'It was weird,' he admitted. 'For a moment there I could have sworn I could smell you, it was a very strange combination of your shampoo and that caramel scented moisturiser you sometimes use.' Nick frowned, brow furrowed in thought. 'It didn't last long, though, and then all I could smell was her tails burning.'

'Did she try to touch you?' The question didn't elicit an ounce of jealousy inside her. It was strange, to be so secure in her relationship with Nick. It was another nice thing that had come of her abduction, the knowledge that Nick wanted her because she was Adalind and not just because she was the mother of his child.

'She was straddling me,' Nick reminded her. 'That kind of implies touching.'

Adalind made an annoyed noise in the back of her throat and got to her feet. 'If her seduction was working she'd have known just how to touch you.' To demonstrate, she reached out and slid her hand up the side of his neck until her fingers were in his hair. It hadn't take her long to find just the right spot to touch – right before she gripped tightly and yanked his head back – for when they had a bit more time to get a little rough.

Nick shuddered slightly under her touch and she grinned wickedly. 'Yeah,' he croaked. 'Definitely didn't touch me like that.'

Adalind withdrew her hand and turned to Rosalee. 'There must be something wrong with the Kitsune.'

Rosalee agreed. 'Something's stopping her from seducing a mate and extinguishing one of her tails.'

'So what you're saying is we need to find this Kitsune again and help her so she can seduce some other random guy and extinguish her tail?'

'Or risk another city destroying fire,' Rosalee finished for Hank.

'Man, I miss the days when things were simple,' he grunted. 'Remember when we just solved the case and caught the bad guy?'

Nick snorted ruefully but Adalind noticed he didn't agree with his partner. He didn't disagree either but Adalind thought it was telling that Nick didn't mind so much that his life had turned a little, well, Grimm.

'Do either of you have any idea how to help her?' Nick didn't sound like he was expecting the answer to be yes, which cut down on the disappointment when both Adalind and Rosalee shook their heads.

'We can't help her until we know what's wrong with her,' Rosalee explained.

Nick heaved a huge sigh. 'I guess we'll start trying to track her down again.'

Hank, who seemed to be thinking about their last encounter with the Kitsune wanted to know what they were supposed to do when they found her. 'It's not like she's going to come willingly, not after we just tried to arrest her for murder.'

'That whole failing to seduce Nick thing probably won't help,' Wu reminded them with considerable amusement.

'You find her,' Adalind replied, 'we'll deal with her.'

Nick didn't look particularly thrilled with the idea of her getting involved with a woman who possessed nine flaming tails and a particularly prickly nature but he couldn't exactly argue against it. She and Rosalee were their best chance of getting to this Kitsune without being burned; he'd just have to deal with it.

'We'll start looking up Kitsune while you're gone,' Rosalee suggested. 'Maybe we'll come across something that will tell us what's been done to her when we finally find her.'

It seemed like the best plan and so Nick placed a gentle kiss on Kelly's head before handing him to Adalind. She got a kiss to the temple that he barely even seemed to realise he was giving her before he, Hank and Wu were disappearing out the door to once again track down the Kitsune.

'Any ideas what we're supposed to be looking for?' Adalind queried.

'Not a clue,' Rosalee said frankly.

Adalind just nodded. She placed Kelly back in the carrier where he happily fell to sleep and kept an eye on the shop while Rosalee went down to the basement to retrieve the books she thought might be helpful. Adalind put the kettle on again. She didn't know how long it would take Nick to track down the Kitsune (she supposed it depended on how cautious the woman was being) and so figured more tea couldn't hurt.

Nick called around six to say they'd had no luck and he was heading home. He sounded tired and annoyed about the whole thing but she and Rosalee had just one more book to flick through so she wasn't quite ready to return home. It would mark the first time Adalind could remember that Nick would beat her home.

They weren't counting those four days of her abduction.

When she returned to the loft, Nick had dinner warming in the oven and was waiting for her, sprawled on his back across their bed. He'd already stripped out of his jeans and sweater – his work clothes – and was in the cotton pants and t-shirt he slept in. it made her smile and so she set Kelly in his carrier on the floor by the bed and crawled onto the mattress beside him.

He didn't open his eyes when she cuddled into his side but he did close his arms around her. 'Apparently fighting off a Kitsune's seduction makes you really tired,' he murmured.

'You've been working a lot lately,' she pointed out as well.

'I know,' he said on a yawn. 'I don't know the numbers but I think the crime rate in Portland has skyrocketed since Black Claw came to town.'

'Kind of makes you wonder why they want a police captain for mayor.'

Nick made a disgruntled sound, which Kelly then mirrored. Nick opened his eyes and smiled. 'Guess that means its dinner time.'

They talked a bit about their next step with the extension but didn't touch on anything important. Nick really was tired and it worried her that maybe he was pushing himself too hard. HW hadn't been tugging him in multiple directions, she was pretty sure he hadn't spoken to Meisner since her abduction, but work was getting bad. The number of wesen cases, he'd told her just a few nights ago (over dinner), was getting out of hand.

It was a lot of pressure to put on just three people and yet, those cases seemed to fall into Nick's lap. He worried about the ones that didn't, about the cases that other detectives were getting that involved wesen.

'You can't think about that,' she'd cautioned. 'You can only do so much.'

He went to bed straight after dinner and when she returned to check on him after cleaning up he was fast asleep. She grinned and took a quick photo that she then sent to Rosalee. Nick probably wouldn't appreciate her sending the photo to his best friend's wife but, judging by the amused message she got back from Rosalee, the fuchsbau appreciated the potential blackmail material.

Hank woke them early the next morning with the news they'd found their Kitsune. According to the uniform that'd called in the sighting, she was checked into a motel just three blocks from where she'd killed her potential mate. She may not have moved very far but at least she'd had the sense to change from her hotel to a low-key motel.

Of course, it had seemed like a good plan yesterday at the shop, Nick would track down the Kitsune and then she and Rosalee would approach her, but there was the slight practical issue of Kelly. After a quick discussion, Nick volunteered Monroe to babysit (he didn't protest) and so they stopped by Monroe's dropped Kelly off and picked up Rosalee before they went to meet Hank and Wu at the motel.

Nick pulled his car up beside Hank's and they all got out. 'Seen anything?'

Hank shook his head. 'Manager has her checked into room 7, no one's been in or out since we got here.'

'Do you know if she's alone?' Rosalee asked.

Adalind didn't particularly feel like dealing with a Kitsune who'd just been rejected. She somehow doubted it would be a fun experience. If there were a couple of hours between now and her last failed attempt to mate, that would be much better.

'As far as we can tell she is.'

Adalind nodded and then before Nick could try something silly like talk her out of it, she started moving toward the room. Rosalee easily caught up to her and the two made there way to room 7. They were still within clear view of Nick and Hank, making her glad that Wu had decided to ride with Hank and not bring his own car.

It was all well and good saying they were going to confront the Kitsune but the question of how best they do it was one they hadn't really come up with a satisfying answer for. As soon as they reached the door, Adalind raised a hand and knocked. It wasn't like there was any other way they were going to be able to approach the woman. They didn't want to send her running.

Adalind thought she heard movement inside but no one came to answer the door. The design of the motel meant there was no convenient bathroom window for her to crawl out of so when a second knock went unanswered, Adalind simply placed her hand over the lock and concentrated on using her powers to turn the tumblers. There was a satisfying click and she turned the handle.

It was a good thing she had downgraded from her much nicer hotel, Adalind had never had much luck using her powers to get through card systems. Her skeleton key wasn't much use in those situations either.

'Ready?' she asked Rosalee in a whisper. When Rosalee nodded, she pushed open the door.

At first glance the room looked empty. The bed was rumpled so they knew someone had at least been staying there but the small room didn't leave much space to hide, especially with the small wardrobe open. That left the bathroom. Rosalee closed the door behind them and sniffed the room. She nodded toward the bathroom confirming Adalind's suspicions.

Given the whole room smelt like something was burning, Adalind was amazed Rosalee could smell anything else.

Instead of moving to the bathroom to confront the woman, Adalind took a seat on the end of the bed and waited. Rosalee seemed to understand what she was doing because she took a seat on the room's only chair and looked toward the bathroom. Eventually, curiosity got the better of the woman in the bathroom and she poked her head around the corner of the door.

She froze when she saw Adalind and Rosalee. Adalind was surprised by how young she was. She didn't even look twenty and at a diminutive 5 foot, she could have easily passed for much younger. She was beautiful though, long dark hair, pale milky skin and huge brown eyes. She could see how the effect might be slightly ruined to non-wesen by the flaming tails waving behind her.

'Hi,' Rosalee greeted her quietly, using the gentlest tone possible so as not to spook the obviously terrified girl. 'We're not going to hurt you.'

Adalind didn't exactly blame the girl for not immediately believing them. As nice and genuine as Rosalee was, they were still strangers who had broken into her room.

'I'm Rosalee,' she tried again. 'This is Adalind, we were hoping we could talk to you.'

Again, the Kitsune didn't say anything but at least she hadn't ducked back into the bathroom and slammed the door on them. Adalind would count that as progress.

'We know you didn't mean to hurt that man,' Rosalee assured her. 'We want to help you.'

This time, the woman took a step out of the bathroom. Behind her, her nine tails swished back and forth, trailing flames through the air. Whether it was a reaction to their presence or something she couldn't turn off, Adalind didn't know, either way, she was impressed the woman hadn't accidentally burned the motel down.

'My mama said I'd know what to do, that men wouldn't be able to resist me,' she spoke with only a hint of her heritage. 'I didn't meant to hurt that man.'

'But he could resist you,' Adalind murmured. 'Something wasn't letting you work your seduction properly.'

The woman nodded. It was weird being in the room with a Kitsune and not worrying she was going to use words and trickery to rob them blind or get them hurt. All of the stories she'd heard growing up, all of the accounts she'd heard from friends of acquaintances, made Kitsune out to be something to be avoided. Right now, though, there wasn't any danger of anything more than burns.

'I don't understand what happened.' There was a pause and then she said. 'Why do you want to help me? You don't even know me.'

It was an interesting question and one Adalind didn't know how to answer. Up until a few months ago she'd have never even considered helping this woman. She'd have been too busy worrying about how to help herself and before that she'd have wanted to know what she'd get for helping. Maybe it was spending so much time with Nick and Rosalee but Adalind actually found herself feeling sorry for the girl. She found herself wanting to help.

She didn't much care about the man who had died but, still, progress.

'We know what happens if you can't extinguish your tale,' Adalind offered. 'I don't think any of us want that.'

'Do you have any idea why you can't seduce men?' Rosalee asked, not unkindly.

If Nick had been there she was sure he'd have found the whole conversation really strange. Then again, he'd probably had weirder discussions before, being a Grimm and all. Actually, when she thought about it, he'd probably had weirder conversations with her about their whole situation.

The Kitsune shook her head. 'I reach for it and its not there.'

Adalind, having no idea how the Kitsune actually seduced men, not on a biological level anyway, couldn't say what should have been there or if that was perfectly normal. 'What's not there?'

'My gift.' The Kitsune looked down. 'I reach inside for my gift but all I find is emptiness. Its tastes funny.'

Rosalee latched on that last bit. 'It tastes funny?'

'Like bitter on my tongue when it should be sweet like berries and chocolate.'

'Maybe its some sort of poison then?' Rosalee wondered aloud. They hadn't come across any poisons in the books last night but those had only been natural remedies. There was always the chance someone had intentionally poisoned the woman to stop her from mating and ultimately kill her.

It wasn't exactly a practical way to kill someone; it was slow and not necessarily painful. And hey, this was Portland, there was always the chance someone would find her burning tails a turn on and sleep with her without the aid of hormones designed for seduction.

'Poison?' the Kitsune asked. 'You think someone poisoned me?' Outraged, her tails flared a scorching blue and her pupils narrowed to cat-like slits. It was the strangest woge, Adalind had ever seen. All of the stories she'd heard said that Kitsune were much like fuchsbau, just with added tails. This was nothing like a fuchsbau.

'Do you know anyone who would want to hurt you?' Rosalee asked. 'Do you remember eating or drinking anything weird?'

'No, I -' the Kitsune stopped, mouth snapping closed and eyes widening. 'Yes! When my tails first started flaming and mama said I needed to leave to find a mate. It's traditional to have a feast before a Kitsune leaves for her first mating. My aunt gave me this drink – but everyone had some.'

'This drink made you sick?' Adalind clarified.

'No,' and now the Kitsune seemed slightly embarrassed. 'It made me very horny.'

Adalind frowned, she wasn't sure she saw the problem. Didn't the burning of her tails automatically ratchet up her sex drive until she wanted to jump everything around her? Wasn't that kind of the point?

'And that was a bad thing?' she hazarded.

The Kitsune shrugged. 'I didn't think so.' And now she sounded confused as well as embarrassed. 'We all got very drunk after the parents left. I think I had sex with my brother's girlfriend.'

'Well,' Adalind remarked dryly, 'that's not going to help extinguish your tail.'

Sheepishly, the Kitsune admitted, 'I don't think my brother's going to be very happy either.'

In spite of the situation, Adalind laughed. 'Probably not.'

Rosalee was frowning, rather than find the story amusing it seemed to have prompted some sort of thought. 'Is it unusual for Kitsune to have sex with a woman during mating?'

The Kitsune shrugged helplessly. 'Probably, we're driven to create children and that's not exactly going to do that – fun as it can be.'

Rosalee nodded slowly. 'It sounds like you're aunt gave you something to ramp up your sex drive to the point where you didn't much care who you had sex with. I just don't understand why.'

'Were there men at this celebration of yours?' Adalind questioned.

'It is for women only.'

Adalind nodded. It seemed like the intention had been to push her into having sex before she could find someone suitable for procreation. Did the act of having sex trigger something in a Kitsune's biology that had thrown her system out of whack or had the hormones and chemicals swirling around her body during the act triggered the poison?

'I don't suppose you know any virgin fuchsbau looking for an easy lay?' she asked Rosalee, wondering if the act of sex with someone more suitable was a solution of its own.

Rosalee shook her head but there was a split seconds hesitation where she seemed to be considering whether or not that would even work. 'No, I think our best bet is to find some way of counteracting this poison or drug your aunt gave you.'

'You can do that?' the Kitsune sounded hopeful and it just reinforced how young she was. It was hard to picture this young woman doing any of the horrible things she'd heard Kitsune were prone to do.

'We can try,' Rosalee hedged. 'But we'll need to go back to my shop.'

'Shop?'

'She runs an herbal shop that has all of the things we might need for something like this,' Adalind explained. 'Only, if we are going to help you there's something you need to know.'

Warily, the Kitsune took a step backward. 'What?'

'That detective you tried to seduce yesterday?' Adalind reminded her. 'He's a Grimm. He's my Grimm,' she added hastily when she saw fear on the Kitsune's face. 'But well, he's the one who sent us to help you.'

'Why would a Grimm want to help me?' she demanded. 'Especially after I killed that man?'

'Why would a Grimm be with a hexenbiest?' Adalind posed the question to make a point. 'He's not your average Grimm.'

The Kitsune didn't seem thrilled with the idea but after Adalind pointed out Nick's complete failure to kill her after her own failed seduction attempt – and pointed out that would never happen again unless she wanted to be dealing with a pissed off hexenbiest – they managed to coax the woman out of the motel and to the car.

Just before they reached Nick, who looked like he had been about to storm into the room to get her, Adalind thought to say, 'I'm sorry, I don't know your name.'

'Maiko,' she answered. 'I'm Maiko.'

The ride to the shop was a little uncomfortable, not only because Maiko was still a little unsure around Nick but also because being so nervous she had a lot of trouble with her tails. Although, Adalind and Nick had talked briefly about replacing his Land Cruiser with something newer (there was that need for more safety features again), they hadn't been seriously considering it until Maiko's nerves set his back seat on fire.

Still, it was better to burn his crappy back seat than have to explain what happened to the back of Hank's car.

There was another awkward moment when they arrived at the shop to find Monroe already there waiting for them when Maiko realised that Nick not only "belonged" to Adalind but that they also had a child together. She seemed mortified she'd tried to seduce him and kept trying to apologise. Adalind sort of found the whole thing funny because it made Nick so uncomfortable.

As easy as it was to say they were going to cure Maiko, actually finding the right ingredients to put together was incredibly difficult.

'What if we just put together a basic antidote?' Monroe suggested.

Rosalee shook her head. 'Not specific enough.'

'Maybe we don't try to cure it,' Adalind suggested. 'Maybe we just heighten the pheromones that help her seduce men?'

'What if that only works once?' Rosalee reasoned. 'What if the next time her tails ignite the same thing happens?'

Adalind didn't think it would work like that. It took a lot to permanently suppress someone's abilities. She was a perfect example; the suppressant had only been a temporary fix and even Nick's blood hadn't stopped her from getting her power's back and that was an ancient rite as much as the one she'd had to do to gain them back. The poison working on Maiko's system didn't strike her as something permanent; it wouldn't need to be when Maiko's inability to extinguish her own tail would soon kill her.

'How long ago did your aunt give you the drink?' she asked.

'Four days.'

'And how long before your tails consume you?'

'Five more days.'

Adalind nodded. 'I don't think what she did was permanent; I think it'll wear off in its own time. We just need to find some way to get your seduction working now.'

'Do we even need to do that?' Wu asked. 'I mean, there's got to be someone out there who finds you attractive – you're a beautiful young woman.'

Maiko blushed at the compliment but Nick shot him down. 'That's not the problem, it's the burning tales getting really close to…' he trailed off but they all got the picture.

'I think Adalind's right,' Rosalee finally said. 'I think we just need to find some way to boost your pheromones to make you irresistible.'

'Can you do that?' Hank worried.

'Oh I can do that,' Rosalee confirmed easily. 'Its just that it'll make her attractive to everyone.'

'So we need to find someone suitable and then dose her?' Nick deduced.

'Any volunteers?' Adalind couldn't help asking.

No one seemed particularly amused by that but it did raise some interesting questions about how they were supposed to find someone suitable. How did you pick someone for a Kitsune to impregnate when you knew they'd never know they were fathering a child?

'Do these men ever get to know their children?' Adalind wondered aloud before she could stop herself. 'Why does it have to be nine different men?'

Maiko shrugged helplessly. 'Many of my people have tried to find one mate but it never works. The tail ignites and we are driven away from the men we love to seek another.'

'That's actually kind of horrible,' Adalind observed. 'I would never have let Kelly grow up not knowing Nick and we hated each other back then.'

She might have considered it when she'd first realised whom the father of her child was but that had been driven by panic and fear that someone would find out and either kill her or try to use her (again) as leverage against Nick. It was weird to consider that she had Kenneth of all people to thank for giving her Nick. He'd seen straight through her lies and hadn't much cared about Kelly beyond how he could use his very existence to control Juliette.

Once they'd decided on a course of action it didn't actually take them long to mix up the solution to their problem. That was the easy part, finding a suitable mate was the hard part.

'Well this is just stupid,' Adalind muttered four hours later. She was sitting at the bar in the lounge of a reasonably priced hotel trying to find a potential mate for Maiko based solely on how attractive the man was. 'Just because someone's attractive doesn't mean they'll be donating superior genetic material.'

Rosalee, who was seated beside her, nodded her head in agreement. 'Oh, I know.'

They sat back and continued to watch Maiko who was doing an excellent job of pretending to be a confused tourist. Watching her trick one man after the other into buying her a drink or offering to show her the local sites hinted at how scary she could be if she let the trickster out to play for real.

Every now and then she escaped to the bathroom and had to hide, woged, in a stall for ten minutes until she'd gotten herself under control. It was proving to be a strange day. Even more so when you considered the fact that Hank and Nick had returned to work with Wu to try and fudge the reports enough to make it look like the man's death had been accidental.

Nick was lying in reports, she was scoping out men in a bar with Rosalee and Monroe was watching both Kelly and the shop.

Definitely a strange day.

It was another hour before Maiko found someone she clearly wanted. The more they talked the harder it was getting for her to hide what she was. Adalind conceded she had decent taste. He was in his late twenties and was obviously in town on business because he looked just a little lost and unsure in his own way. He looked really nice in his suit, too.

'And that's my cue.' Rosalee got up from the bar and made for the bathroom, making sure to brush Maiko on the way passed. It was a very slick move, Adalind doubted anyone would have noticed the pressure syringe slip into Maiko as she passed, heading out of the bar toward the elevators with her potential mate.

'Now all we do is wait,' Adalind murmured to herself.

'Maybe we should move to the restaurant?' Rosalee suggested when she came back. 'I don't know how long this is supposed to take.'

Adalind reigned in the desire to make a joke about staying power, realising that really wasn't going to be the problem. So long as he could overlook the burning tails in the height of his lust it didn't matter if he lasted five seconds or an hour. Just so long as he got the job done.

And that was just a really weird thing to be thinking about over a late lunch.

Adalind and Rosalee had never had trouble finding things to talk about before but it was a real struggle not to think about what was (hopefully) happening upstairs in that man's hotel room. There was a certain amount of guilt that went along with the whole thing. By helping Maiko overcome her seduction issues they were essentially helping her rob a man of his choices. He'd never know he'd fathered a child, never get to know that child.

He'd never really understand what happened that one afternoon when he was in Portland on business. He was also young enough that he'd probably go home bragging about the wild afternoon he'd had with "this crazy Asian chick". She hoped.

When Maiko didn't immediately come down, Adalind took that as a sign things were going well. When she still hadn't come down by the time they reached dessert, Adalind assumed things were going really well. When she and Rosalee were just contemplating moving back across to the bar and were nearly knocked down by the young businessman, dashing out of the elevator hastily straightening his tie, Adalind knew things had definitely gone well.

Minutes later, Maiko emerged from the elevator looking calm and relaxed. She smiled when she saw them and grinned slyly. 'Thank you,' she grinned. 'That was a lot of fun.'

She continued out of the hotel, walking with a seductive sway to her hips, looking extremely satisfied. Adalind exchanged a look with Rosalee and they both started to laugh.

It might have been a strange day but really, that was kind of normal for a hexenbiest in love with a Grimm who was best friends with a fuchsbau who was married to a blutbad who also happened to be best friends with her Grimm.

At home that night, Adalind once more pulled out the list Danny had given her. The last two days had shown her what it could be like when she was busy helping Nick with his wesen cases. They'd also shown her she needed to start making more of the life she'd been given.

Nick and Rosalee had lives of their own they had to juggle the wesen cases around, maybe it was time she got one of her own.


End file.
